Improvement in stringing pianos



2 Sheets--Sheei i. A. MUELLER.

- Stringing Pianos. I No. 164,862. Patente dlune22,i875.

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. Stringing Pianos. No. 164,862 Patentedlune 22,1875.

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2Sheets--Sheet2.

UNITE STATES PATENT O'rrron.

, AUGUST MOELLER, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN STRINGING PIANOS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 164,862, dated J one 22, 1875; application filed March 27, 1875.

tional side views, showing the said arrangements.

This invention relates to an improvement in the method of stringing pianos.

In the usual method, which is illustrated in Fig. 2 and by the line A, Fig. 1, the bridge B rests upon the soundingboard C, and is higher than the pin a by which the wire is attached to the frame I); the result of this is a powerful downward pressure upon the sounding-board, which causes the board to settle, or fall out of shape, materially affecting the resonance or the vibration of the wires.

The object of this invention is principally to avoid this dit'iiculty; and it consists in so arran gin g the agl'affe, or bearings for the wires upon the sounding-board, that the bend in the wire over, or at the agraffe, shall be in relation to the pins, so as to produce a lifting strain upon the board nearly equal to the downward pressure, as more fully hereinafter set forth.

For the purpose of illustration, the frame D and sounding-board C are shown as square, but it will be understood that these are of the usual or any desirable construction. The bridge B is made somewhat lower than the usual construction, but is arranged in sub stantially the usual line. d represents two wires; one end of each is secured to a pin, a, and the other end to the studs 6, by which the wires are drawn in the usual manner; the a graft'e f, (see Fig. 3,) consists of a metal stud, shown at Fig. 3"", presenting a thin edge, over which the wires are drawn; this upper edge should be substantially upon a plane with the point of attachment of the wire to the pin a. Between the bridge and the frame a bar or capodastor, it, rests upon the wires, and through these a screw or stud, m, extendsinto the sounding-board-the capodastor n being below the plane of the wire, between the ag *affe and the pin a, so that the wire will descend from the pin to the bar a, and thence rise to the agraffe, as clearly seen in Fig. 3.

Thus it will be seen that while the strain upon the bridge is the same as by the old conmade, as seen in Fig. 5, with an inclined perforation,so that the bend of the string or wire comes within the agraffe, yet retaining the same upward and downward strain.

By this construction, the lateral bend, which is usually made in the wire on the bridge, as between the points 8 t, Fi 1, and which is necessary to insure a perfect vibration, is made vertically, and thus advantage taken of that necessary bend, and a much better or prolonged vibration is obtained by this construction than by the old.

A further advantage results from the fact that whereas, in the present construction, hard wood (usually maple) must be used for the bridge, in order to sustain the piano, and which not unfrequently splits; by this construction there is no such strain upon the bridge, and a softer wood may be employed, thereby increasing the resonance over that with a hard-wood bridge. I

I am aware that pianos have been so strung as to give a lifting strain only upon the sounding-board, and that they have also been strung to give only a downward strain upon the sounding-board. Such methods I do not claim.

I claim As an improvement in stringing pianos, the agraffe and the string or wire combined and arranged with the frame and soundingboard, substantially as described, so as to give the downward bend to the wire at the bridge, and a combined lifting and downward strain upon the soundingboard.

Witnesses: AUGUST MOELLER.

JOHN E. EARLE, CLARA BROUGHTON. 

